HP L1500 & L3000 (rp5430/rp5470)

Overview
Internals
External Connectors
ROM update
References
Operating Systems
Benchmarks
Physical dimensions/Power

Overview

Project names

L1500-36 (rp5430): Rhapsody wave 2 360
L1500-44 (rp5430): Rhapsody wave 2 440
L1500-5X (rp5430): Rhapsody wave 2 W+ 550
L1500-6X (rp5430): Rhapsody wave 2 W2 650
L1500-7X (rp5430): Rhapsody wave 2 W2 750
L1500-8X (rp5430): Rhapsody wave 2 W2 875
L3000-5X (rp5470): Marcato W+ 550
L3000-6X (rp5470): Marcato W2 650
L3000-7X (rp5470): Marcato W2 750
L3000-8X (rp5470): Marcato W2 875

Introduced: 2001-2002

The second incarnation of the L-Class servers are, similar to their direct predecessors L1000 and L2000, 7U rack-mountable servers with either 1-2 or 1-4 processors, 8GB or 16GB RAM and a large set of I/O options and expandability. The internal system architecture of the L1500 and L3000 is different however — the central parts of the processor/memory and I/O system were modified (trimmed-down) versions of the Stretch chipset used in the rp7400 N4000 servers.

The L1500 features the same chassis and mainboards as the L3000, however a large set of the interfaces (I/O, memory, processors sockets) is deactivated in hardware, limiting the L1500 to about half of the L3000’s expansion options.

These systems only run 64-bit versions of HP-UX — 11.00 and 11i (v1 and v2). Linux could be usable however it is unclear how solid the support is, as these machines and their architecture were rather uncommon.

The L1500 and L3000 could be upgraded with a board-swap (mainboard, processors, etc.) to the Itanium 2-based rx5670 servers.

Internals

CPU

The rp5430 (L1500) support up to 2-way and the rp5470 (L3000) up to 4-way multi-processing (SMP). There are several classes of possible processors, both shipped with the systems or later upgraded. Support for individual processors depends on the specific system with corresponding firmware revisions, operating system support and, lastly, the system’s support/auxiliary hardware (power supplies, voltage changers, etc.).

Both the L1500 and L3000 came with different system boards, which supported different types of processors:

L1500 (rp5430): up to two CPUs, system boards support all processors from 550MHz to 750MHz
L3000 (rp5470): up to four CPUs, with the processor type depending on the exact model number [unsure which models support the 875MHz PA-8700+]:
- A6144A: 550MHz processors
- A6144B: 550MHz, 650MHz and 750MHz processors
- A6840A: 550MHz, 650MHz and 750MHz processors
- A8328A: 550MHz, 650MHz and 750MHz processors

Processor types are indicated with the following suffixes:

-5X: PA-8600 550MHz with 512/1024KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each
-6X: PA-8700 650MHz with 768/1536KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each
-7X: PA-8700 750MHz with 768/1536KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each
-8X: PA-8700+ 875MHz with 768/1536KB on-chip I/D L1 cache each

Mixing different processors/speeds is not supported.

Chipset

The chipset is similar to the one used in the rp7400 N4000 servers, based around the Stretch chipset with a Prelude SMC memory controller which attaches to the memory and two system buses, which in turn connect up to four CPUs and the I/O controller(s).

Stretch CEC (core electronics complex) — describes the complete chipset package of Prelude memory controller, DEW Runway converters and IKE I/O controller
Prelude SMC memory controller
DEW BC Runway converters (probably two — note quite clear from the whitepapers/descriptions, at least two would make sense)
IKE I/O controller, connects the PCI bridges to the system main bus (to the left system main bus in fact — the right system bus is used exclusively by two CPUs while the left on is shared between CPUs and I/O)
rp5430: Seven Elroy PCI bridges, attach PCI buses to the IKE I/O controller
rp5470: Ten Elroy PCI bridges, attach PCI buses to the IKE I/O controller
Two HP Diva Serial [GSP] Multiport UARTs
DEC 21142/43 Fast Ethernet controller (Tulip)
Dual-channel Symbios Logic 53C875 16-bit Ultra-Wide SCSI-2 controllers
Dual-channel Symbios Logic 53C896 Ultra2-Wide SCSI-3 controller

Buses

Two system buses, 133MHz, each 2.1GB/s peak — about 4.3GB/s aggregate (the system bus is in fact formally an Itanium/Merced system bus), with one system bus connecting the I/O and two CPUs and the other system bus connecting (only) two CPUs
Two or four Runway CPU buses, each 2.1GB/s peak — aggregate 4.3 or 8.6GB/s peak (these Runway buses are attached to the two system buses — this means the CPUs have a theoretical bandwidth which cannot be sustained by the system’s main bus)
Memory bus, 4.3GB/s
rp5430:
- Eight I/O data channels, each 133MHz 256MB/s — 2.1GB/s aggregate
- Five PCI-64/66 I/O buses for expansion slots
- One PCI-64/33 I/O bus for core I/O
rp5470:
- Twelve I/O data channels, each 133MHz 256MB/s — 3.2GB/s aggregate
- Eight PCI-64/66 I/O buses for expansion slots
- Two PCI-64/33 I/O buses for expansions slots and core I/O
SCSI-2 Ultra-Narrow single-ended bus
Two SCSI-3 Ultra2-Wide LVD main storage I/O buses

Memory

ECC SDRAM DIMMs
256MB, 512MB and 1GB modules supported
16 slots
rp5430: 8.0GB maximum (the system will not boot if more than 8.0GB of memory is installed)
rp5470: 16.0GB maximum

Expansion

Two Twin-Turbo PCI 64-bit/66MHz slots, each on an independent PCI bus, each connected via two I/O data channels (aggregate 512MB/s), hot-plug capable
rp5430:
- Four Turbo PCI 64-bit/66MHz slots on three PCI buses, each connected via one I/O data channel (256MB/s), three of four slots are hot-plug capable
rp5470:
- Six Turbo PCI 64-bit/66MHz slots, each on an independent PCI bus, each connected via one I/O data channel (256MB/s), hot-plug capable [two of these slots are not active on the rp5430]
- Two PCI 64-bit/33MHz slots on a shared bus, on one I/O data channel (256MB/s) [these slots are not active on the rp5430]
Two PCI 64-bit/33MHz slots, reserved for LAN/SCSI and GSP (management) cards, on a shared bus, on one I/O data channel (256MB/s)
All PCI slots are 5V keyed
Slot layout (counted from bottom up):
1. PCI-64/33, pci0, reserved (LAN/SCSI)
2. PCI-64/33, pci0, reserved (GSP)
3. PCI-64/33, pci1, shared [not available on rp5430]
4. PCI-64/33, pci1, shared [not available on rp5430]
5. PCI-64/66, pci2, Turbo, hot-pluggable [not available on rp5430]
6. PCI-64/66, pci3, Turbo, hot-pluggable [not available on rp5430]
7. PCI-64/66, pci4, Turbo, hot-pluggable
8. PCI-64/66, pci5, Turbo, hot-pluggable
9. PCI-64/66, pci6, Turbo, hot-pluggable
10. PCI-64/66, pci7, Turbo, hot-pluggable
11. PCI-64/66, pci8, Twin-Turbo, hot-pluggable
12. PCI-64/66, pci9, Twin-Turbo, hot-pluggable

Drives

Four trays for 3.5″ Ultra2-Wide LVD SCSI hard drives with 80-pin SCA connector, hot-plug
One tray for a half-heigth 5.25″ 50-pin Ultra-Narrow SE SCSI drive, external accessible

External Connectors

50-pin HD SCSI-2 Ultra-Narrow single-ended
68-pin VHDI SCSI-3 Ultra2-Wide LVD
Three DB9 male RS232C serial (local console, remote console, general purpose)
TP/RJ45 10/100Mbit Ethernet
TP/RJ45 10/100Mbit Ethernet Web Console

ROM update

There is an firmware update available which contains the latest version (44.12).

PF_CARIW4412.txt has details about the contents and installation of the patch.
PF_CARIW4412.tar.gz contains the patch.

References

User Guide rp5400 Family of Servers (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Company (November 2002, first edition, product number 5981-2650EN)
hp server rp5400 series entry-level UNIX servers technical whitepaper, Hewlett-Packard Company (August 2002) [did not find an appropriate URL for this PDF document —Ed.]

Operating Systems

HP-UX: 11.00 and 11i (v1 and v2)
Linux: should work

Benchmarks

Model	SPEC2000, int	SPEC2000, fp	SPEC2000rate, int	SPEC2000rate, fp
L3000-5X rp2470	388	376	4.5 2-CPU: 8.9 4-CPU: 17.4	4.4 2-CPU: 8.3 4-CPU: 14.5
L3000-7X rp2470	581		6.7 2-CPU: 12.9

Compare these with other results on the Benchmarks page.

Physical dimensions/Power

368×482×775mm height/width/depth
Rack-mounted: 7U height, 482×775mm width/depth
68kg net weight
Up to three hot-swappable power supplies (one is standard)
Each has 930W max. power input

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